Final Post!

Hello all!

I finally got some pictures from my last week in the UK from Kate the Canadian. For some reason the pictures will only post in a small size.. sorry!



White cliffs of Dover! We spent the entire day hiking up and across the cliffs. Couldn't see France, but we were close!

Canterbury Cathedral, famous for being the location of Thomas Beckett's murder!

Dover Castle!

Our hostess, Renata, in London!

Sorry that's a short post, but since I'm back in Clemson things have gotten busy again! Thanks so much for reading the blog! THANK YOU AGAIN DUCKENFIELD CLAN!!!!!!

Best,

Emily

HOME SWEET HOME!

I'm back. It's SO hot here, but it's good to be home with my family for a few days. I'm still waiting for my traveling buddy Kate to get back from England.. all of the pictures from the last week are on her camera. Expect some posts when I get the pictures in!

See most of you very soon back in sunny, tropical Clemson!

Love,
Emily

Last post until Clemson

Well, tonight we had our closing dinner/ceremonies.. quite sad. I met some amazing people while here, and it's quite sad to leave them. Tomorrow I am heading off to Canterbury and Dover with Kate from Michigan. We'll end up in London couch surfing with a Hungarian girl. I'm meeting up with one of Jonathan's friends (Jamie) in London, so we'll have a pseudo-local showing us around. Should be an interesting few days!

Ahhh, I really don't want to leave, but so it goes. Expect a long post when I get home!

Love love love,
Emily

Punting! (FINALLY!)

I've got ONE DAY LEFT in Oxford. I'm up early to pack and clean, then I plan on wandering the city as I say a sad goodbye. Yesterday was an excellent day, so on a happier note, I'll share that with you all.

Most importantly, I finally went punting! It's much harder than it looks, and the Thames is full of hidden dangers: tourists, swans, stumps, stinging nettles on the shore, you name it.


Here, Jonathan and Rachel battle the evil swan. Now, it's pretty hard to maneuver these boats with a stick.. and this swan decided to swim within 2 feet of our boat. We had NO way to get away from him, so he just bobbed next to our boat staring us down. Rachel was terrified, the swan just looked confused, and I was laughing so hard I was crying. Finally, this guy swam off, but I think poor Rachel was scarred for life.



As always, these pictures aren't in any particular order. This picture is a new obsession of mine. In many old cathedrals across the UK, masons added touches of their traditional pagan beliefs to the stonework or woodcarving. I think I've mentioned this before, but these figures are known as 'Green Men.' It's made me want to learn a lot more about old Celtic and Druid practices. This guy was on the tomb of the patron saint of Oxford, St. Frideswide (a woman!).

Kari and Kelley, this is completely for you guys. Harry Potter Hall. This is the dining hall in Christ Church. Quite fine. Elizabeth I watched a play here, Charles I held PARLIAMENT here! Now thousands and thousands of tourists now wander through here thanks almost totally to Harry Potter. Christ Church also has a picture gallery which I finally visited yesterday. Saw a Leo da Vinci sketch and lots of Italian renaissance pieces. Can you imagine how wealthy this college must be to own such priceless pieces!?


Just another view of the majesty of Christ Church! This is Tom Quad. Tom is the name of the bell (Old Tom) in the tower in this picture.

I also finally saw Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin) and wandered through its Deer Park (yes, this college has the money to maintain its very own deer park).

Though I don't have a picture, the best part of yesterday was finishing my tutorial. I am not really glad to be done with the course, because I think I have a lot more to learn from Dr. Addison. I'm not horribly burnt out either, because the relevance of global climate change keeps me going. The reason the end of the class was so great is that we were (finally, finally, finally) able to treat Dr. A to a dinner and a few pints and talk in an even more informal way than we normally do. We talked for 2/3 hours in a pub called the Kings Arms...and we finally started to answer what I think is THE question about global climate change: how can/should we adapt? This touches on OUR (the West) responsibility to repay the social costs of past emission levels. It involves imposing (or not? do we have the right?) limits on Indian and Chinese industrialization. What is our responsibility to developing economies who may have more pressing priorities than limiting carbon emissions? How do we incorporate development and a greener lifestyle? A systemic paradigm shift may be what's required, but that is VERY unlikely. An international mandate limiting carbon emissions will not be effective or likely feasible (think Kyoto) without enforceability and global participation. Waiting for consumer demand to stimulate change will take to long. So what's to be done? I still don't see a clear answer to that question, and I don't think Dr. A does either. It's a hell of a task for my generation, but I'll cling (as the hopeless idealist) to the idea that we will innovate and somehow rise to the occasion.

Well, WHEW. I still have so much to think about. Sorry to drag you all through that long rant! I know I'm a bit biased, but this issue seems like THE fundamental issue for the coming century. Climate issues lie at the foundation of many of the key issues of our time. Not to give you all more reading than this dreadful blog, but if you have a minute, I recommend you check this out:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/08/07/Sternreport.pdf

It gives you an idea of the potential impacts of climate change with varying changes in global mean surface temperature.

Ok, I am going to make myself stop. I've got some wandering and packing to do. I'll post one more time before I head off to Canterbury and Dover, and then back to HOT Clemson.

Can't wait to see you all soon!

Love,
Emily

Trip to Glastonbury, Wells, and... a PEAT BOG.

Two posts in one day - NOT BAD!

Yesterday I went on a mini field excursion. We drove through Bath, Glastonbury, walked around Wells and went too... a PEAT BOG. As always, the pictures aren't really in order... one of these days I'll figure out how Blogspot works..

Replica of a Bronze Age house. These would be built in the marsh in the surrounding areas on platforms made of logs. Pretty impressive..


Inside the Bronze Age house. Thatched roof, pagan symbols, smoking fire. You could really sense what it would have been like thousands of years ago.


Self explanatory... but hilarious. This was on a bench in Wells.


This is the Bishop's Palace in Wells. To one-up Bath and retain a powerful religious position in the UK, the city of Wells built a MASSIVE cathedral and palace for the bishop. The palace is mostly in ruins now, but beautiful nonetheless.


Wells Cathedral! One of the most impressive I've seen.


Roof in the Chapter House. There used to be gorgeous stained glass in the room, but Henry VIII's gang destroyed it all.


Doesn't look like much, but THIS is a quagmire. Beware. We were marching around the marshes near Glastonbury and nearly fell in one of these.

PEAT! Peat preserves great geological records. Peat bogs in particular are known for preserving the skin and organs of humans and animals, but dissolving the bones. This marsh has been inhabited for thousands of years. Neolithic people built miles and miles of pathways through the marsh, which are now being preserved and studied by scientists in the area.

Really great excursion... saw more of this beautiful country!

Love,
Emily

Glasgow... some pictures at least..

Hello!!

Only 3/4 more days in Oxford. I'm turning in my final essay tomorrow, giving a closing seminar, and then I'm off... :(

First, it's a SMALL world:

This was in the Kelvin Grove museum in Glasgow... I started cracking up when I saw this. Sounds like Bob Jones has a decent museum, gotta' go! Could be a richer cultural experience than going to Glasgow.


City Chambers in the middle of the city. Just behind me there was a huge market with amazing fresh cheese, pastries, meats, etc..


Again, photos are out of order, but this is the Kelvin Grove museum from the outside.


And from the inside...


Hahaha, so according to Jonathan, Glasgow is the most dangerous city in the developed world (seriously). I thought this picture of a typical Glaswegian street pretty much summed that up. (not so typical, but pretty sketchy looking)

So there are some pictures, more to come!

Love,
Emily

Home, SWEET Home

I'm back after a nine hour overnight bus ride across the UK. I know I promised pictures, but Jonathan took most of them, so I've got to wait for him to upload them all and send them my way. Anyway, Glasgow was GREAT!

First, Jonathan's family is GREAT! They were incredibly hospitable, feed me, and even took me out to a restaurant called the Roasted Bubbly Jock (sounds awful, NOT... it was a traditional Scottish restaurant...finally ate haggis, and loved it).

On day one Jonathan gave me a tour of the city. It's not as old as Oxford, more industrialized, modern.. That night we went to a party at the Glasgow Art School, which apparently is world famous... the people there were RIDICULOUSLY well-dressed.. very vintage high-fashion stuff.. and me in my jeans. I felt pretty classy anyway just to be a part of it.

On Friday we did some more sight seein'.. stopped by the Museum of Transport and a great art museum. That night I went out with some of Jonathan's friends to a flat-leaving party. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, there was a guy there who studied at Clemson two years ago.. didn't know Jonathan.. the whole thing was completely random. For you Clemson folk, he was a friend of Arnaud the Belgian. Smallll world.

Saturday I experienced something magical: Scottish football (soccer). Ok, my goal was to avoid profanity in this blog, but there are some cheers I've got to share with you. The rivalry between the Glasgow Rangers (my team for the day, Protestant folk) and their main rivals the Celtics (yes, Irish, Catholic...you get the picture) goes back 400+ years. The game I went to was Rangers versus Liverpool, and apparently this team has some connections with the Celtics... So unlike back home, this rivalry includes nationality, religion, politics, and sports... which is why there have been many deaths post-game, and why there is a ban on sectarian chants in the arena. To share some of the Glaswegian chants:
(and I really apologize for this, but I think it's an incredibly interesting part of this culture...)
Song including (sorry, sorry, sorry) 'F*&% the Pope and the IRA'
and a chant of thousands screaming 'WE ARE THE PEOPLE'
Ok, there were some others, but I guess you get the idea! Sadly, the Rangers lost, but it was one heck of an experience anyway..

That evening Jonathan's family came over (aunts, uncles, gma) for a BBQ, so I got to hear some incredible Scottish accents. After that, we went to hear a band called Ratatat play downtown.. Glasgow is really famous for its music scene...and this band was beyond brilliant. They had video and lights to go with lyric-less music.

Sunday we were pretty tired, but managed to make it out to the Burell Collection, which is a museum in a park which holds the life acquisitions of Robert Burell, a rich industrialist. We saw gorgeous tapestries, Degas, Manet, ancient Chinese art.. really great place.

Now, I've just gotten back to Oxford after another 9 hr. bus ride... going to try to struggle through the day and get some work done, we'll see... :)!!

Pictures to come soon!!

Love,
Emily